Verified Services

Tag: online agencies

OK, I’m going to give credit where it’s due: hats off to Agency.com for nailing their colours to the mast (in a very public way) and for using web stuff to talk about web stuff. Credit over.

Maybe it’s just a cultural thing. But this video really hurts me. I’m not quite sure why, I think it’s just because it feels really staged and makes people who work at online agencies look like a bunch of chumps. As I was watching it, the voiceover felt like it could, at any minute, morph into moments from ‘The Truth About Advertising‘ (version 2.0). Videos of the inside of agencies always end up being self-referential to the point of embarassment (at least the ones I’ve seen do). This is no exception.

And, furthermore…

What are Subway supposed to do? Give their feedback via YouTube? If that happened I’d forgive the whole thing and give everyone a massive pat on the back (almost).

Whether Agency.com win or lose the pitch, the result will be public, and scrutinised. Which is the bit I gave them credit for earlier.

But this whole thing leaves me with loads of questions:

Now they’ve put their clip out there are they getting behind the monster they’ve created?

In a way that demonstrates that they get the world of web 2.0?

Or is it just a cheap gimmick?

And most importantly: if something gets passed around because people dislike it, does that mean that it’s still viral? I’m guessing it does…?

By the way, I think Agency.com do some really good work. For me this just isn’t, at all. But I’ll be interested to see if there’s a different set of reactions to it from other parts of the world. Or other industries.